Verizon

Sunday morning I discovered that we had no hot water. I went to the basement hoping it was something simple like the pilot was out on the water heater. Unfortunately, I discovered a flooded basement and a dead water heater. We spent hours that day moving all of the stuff out of the flooded part and vacuuming out water. There is a section of carpet that will likely need to be pulled up and thrown away. There’s also another section of the basement with a leak that gets damp when it rains, so there is more carpet that will need to go. Monday I payed a lot of money to a plumber to install a new water heater.

Last night, we went to watch a show on our DVR and the play back was choppy and kept freezing. I rebooted the box as they recommend and after a long time thinking it wouldn’t reboot, it finally did. The DVR worked for one show and was bad again. Verizon tells me the box is bad and I need a new one. Easy fix, but I lose hours of recorded television. I’m not sure Verizon understands why that irritates me so much. They think I should just be happy with my new box. This one is just a minor irritant, but following so closely on the water heater debacle, it was hard to take. Maybe this one will help me with my TV addiction.

I’m trying to think positive and think that maybe all of the bad stuff will just make the next good thing that happens that much sweeter, but the pessimist in me is holding his breath waiting for the next thing to go wrong. I’m thinking a car this time. Christmas vacation will come at the perfect time this year. I can’t wait to get away to Kentucky and not think about things for a while.

I am approaching the end of my original Verizon FIOS contract. I called today to see if I could lock in a new contract at a decent price so I won’t have to deal with a $40 a month increase in my bill. I was told the have nothing to offer me at this time. New customers, however, can lock in a two year contract for less than I am currently paying. I’m not asking for that deal, though it would be nice. I just don’t want to pay over $400 a year more for my service. Unfortunately, they don’t care enough about existing customers to do anything. I guess they think I will think it is worth the money to not switch services. I love Verizon FIOS until I have to call the customer service department about things like this.

They are not alone. I had Directv for years. I would consistently see new services being offered to new customers for free, but that I as an existing customer had to pay quite a bit to get. Finally, when my box died, I used that as an excuse to move in to Verizon only to discover the same apathy towards their existing customers. All they care about are the shiny new customers. Perhaps I should see what other companies are offering if I switch.